Pregones Bronx Block Party-- picture is Ms Melvis Santa
On Sunday August 6, with fine cool summer weather, Pregones Theater had their yearly block party in cooperation with La Casita of Lincoln Center Out of Doors. Through poetry, music, and stories, a remarkable group of artists gave voice to movements like gay/lesbian, women, and immigrants. Poetry performers featured were Safia Elhillo, Denice Frohman, Patricia Spears Jones, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Venessa Marco, Tracie Morris, Urayoán Noel, Gabriel Ramirez, Paul Tran, and Crystal Valentine, and music was by Haleh Liza, James Lovell, Melvis Santa & Ellas-Son, Orquesta Criolla Nacional de Puerto Rico, Mapeyé, and Be Steadwell, with Mr Baba Israel as MC.
The first musical act was Melvis Santa and “Ellas-Son,” a group of women except for the male conga player. Melvis is kind of a sensation, being over 6 feet tall and wearing her hair in a high bun, with a wide ranging voice. She was born and trained musically in Havana, Cuba, but now is based in New York. Melvis sung in Spanish, both slow numbers, and more upbeat dance music.
The spoken poetry offered was helped by the distribution of a booklet with words. Venessa Marco did her signature piece “They Say I’m Off White,” about the conflicts she has being a light-skinned black person. She spoke of both the penalties, as well as the privileges she sees she has for being light skinned. More emotional, almost unbearably so, was the next poet, Paul Tran. His memorized poetry tells about his family from Saigon, Vietnam, then their working in a laundry, and what that means in his consciousness.
Be Steadwell had an interesting take on poetry set to music. She is a solo act and uses a recording device that records her basic rhythms in a loop. “Worthy” was a cute song, where she reflects if she can overcome the voice saying “she’s not worthy, she will never be.” Be Steadwell also did a strong cover interpretation of “Use Somebody” by the Kings of Leon group.
Later, there was Puerto Rican country music with Orquesta Criolla Nacional de Puerto Rico, and Mapeyé playing acoustic guitars, congas and with singing. For info on Pregones’ fall theater season, please see www.pregones.org
